KMSKA – Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen

Oct 11 – This morning we walked to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, also known as KMSKA – Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. A mouthful.

The audio guide gave us the option of hearing about every single piece of art, which looked like it might take a few years, or following their selection of the 25 top artworks. We chose to find the top 25, sort of a treasure hunt, but we also meandered around to look at whatever called to us.

The rooms weren’t arranged by artist, but by theme. There was a room of Light, of Suffering, of Evil, of Impotence, etc. it was an interesting and different way to think about the art.

There’s a Salvador Dali here: Girl Skipping Rope. Why is it in the room of Evil?

Of course, my favorite was the room of Madonnas with their various odd-looking babies:

This is of St. Luke painting Mary and Jesus – note that the models have halos, but in Luke’s portrait they don’t

We went to lunch at a nearby café, and had a spicy tomato soup and some bitterballen – fried balls of marinated shredded beef served with mayonnaise that are a specialty in this area. They were delicious!

We returned to look at some modern works. Many of the paintings selected for the audio tour were ones that I never would have stopped long to consider, but I’m glad we did.